Truck accident spares 1,000 cats from China restaurants

A more fortunate cat at the Houston cat show. (Credit: Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle)

Volunteers in China have rescued more than 1,000 cats that they found crammed in crates on the side of the road after the truck that was carrying them crashed, The Daily Mail reports. The felines were originally meant to be sold to the restaurants of Guangdong in the Hunan province, China Daily reports.

Photos show the animals being fed while still in the crates, before they were taken to the Changsha Small Animal Protection Association to be treated.

The Daily Mail reports that cats, considered a delicacy, often spend up to two months squeezed into tiny crates before they are sold by the pound or in bulk to restaurant owners. Villagers in the countryside raise the cats to make extra money. The cats are kept alive before they are selected by each diner, much as one would select a lobster in a seafood restaurant, according to the report.